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Photograph by: Ric Ernst
, PNG

VANCOUVER – The MLS all-star game subs will be announced today. If Camilo, who wasn’t among the starting XI in fan voting, isn’t on the list, there had better be a bilateral judicial inquiry.

The dynamic little Brazilian, who said at the start of the weekend that he’d like to play internationally for Canada at some point, took over the league lead in goals with two sublime second half tallies as the Vancouver Whitecaps beat the Chicago Fire 3-1 to run their home unbeaten streak in 2013 to 10 games.

“Today, I have lots of chance and happy that some go in,” said the modest, soon-to-be-25-year-old striker.

Maybe it’s that lack of verbal flair in his accented English, not to mention the fact he plays in Vancouver, that has kept him from being recognized more across North America.

But the 20,000 Caps fans who gave the five-foot-seven striker a standing ovation when he came off for a late substitute know that his right-footed brilliance is nearly unmatched.

Camilo scored in the 66th and 71st minutes – his MLS-high third multiple-goal game – to give him 12 on the season and moving him past Chicago’s Mike Magee and Montreal’s Marco Di Vaio.

But he once again shrugged aside any talk of winning the Golden Boot as MLS’s top scorer.

“For me that is not important,” he said after showering and changing into jeans and a white dress shirt. “More important for me, our club is get up in the table. We are third place now (in the West) . . . and I’m very happy I help the club.”

Rookie Kekuta Manneh, an energy-injecting substitute in the 61st minute, set up Camilo’s second goal and scored the Caps third goal.

Coming off the emotional high of a first-ever win over an I-5 rival – 2-0 over Seattle last weekend – the Caps were predictably somewhat listless off the start. Goalkeeper Brad Knighton had to make two big saves in the first 10 minutes as his teammates struggled to find some tempo.

He was credited with five saves overall and looked like he was headed for his third clean sheet in his last four games until Patrick Nyarko scored in the final seconds of stoppage time after some sloppy defending by the Caps.

Knighton, who is trying to fend off the challenge of Danish newcomer David Ousted, was livid on the field after the goal.

“That’s not good enough on our part, we’ve got to see the game out,” he said in the locker room after he calmed down. “Twenty seconds and last kick of the game . . . you want to talk about making the playoffs and this and that, that’s going to be the difference, the little things.

“Fortunate enough we got the three points and the three goals. Defensively, we deserved the shutout from the whole team. It’s a bit of a letdown.”

The win was the Caps seventh at B.C. Place this season and improved their current overall run to 7-1-2. The victory also allowed Vancouver (9-5-5) to leap frog Los Angeles and FC Dallas into third place in the Western Conference. They are five points back of Real Salt Lake with a game in hand and one back of Portland.

The Caps run has coincided with an incredible tear of late from Camilo, who now has 10 goals in his last nine games.

His first goal Sunday – the 100th in Caps MLS franchise history -- came after he brought down a Knighton long ball in Chicago territory, turning away from Shaun Francis and Chris Rolfe. Francis did manage to get back into the box as Camilo broke in, but the Brazilian turned the defender inside out with some deft ball skill before slotting a shot low to the far post past goalkeeper Paolo Tornaghi.

Five minutes later, the crafty Brazilian was sent in all alone on a wonderful through ball from Manneh. He tried to go around a charging Tornaghi, only to have the goalkeeper got a hand on the ball. But Camilo regained control, spun around and paused slightly as Fire defenders rushed back into the box, before coolly slotting the ball between two of them and past a screened Tornaghi.

After dancing with midfielder Gershon Koffie after the first goal, he quickly celebrated the second by putting his right foot on the thigh of a kneeling Manneh, who whipped out an invisible polishing cloth.

“Soon as he gets squared up in the box, he’s really deadly,” head coach Martin Rennie said of Camilo. “(He’s) on a fantastic run.”

Manneh scored in the 84th minute, fighting off Nyarko for the ball in the box, then slipping a shot between the legs of defender Janil Anibaba and short side on Tornaghi.

“In the second half we really got it going,” said Rennie. “Once again, we’ve scored a lot of goals for our fans. It was a great afternoon.”

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